IPL
IPL 2024 Auction: Australia's Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins become costliest ever buys
Dubai/IBNS: Australian pace bowler Mitchell Starc on Tuesday turned out to be the most expensive buy in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL) as he was sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs. 24.75 crore at the mega auction for the upcoming season held here.
Kolkata bought Starc at the auction in a bidding fight with Gujarat Titans, who were equally interested in the 33-year-old.
A former player of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata, Starc has 73 wickets in 58 T20I matches for Australia.
Prior to Starc, Australia captain Pat Cummins turned out to be the most expensive IPL player after he was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 20.50 crore.
Cummins, who led Australia to a World Cup win last month, is primarily a pace bowler who comes handy with the bat for his team.
The right-hander picked 55 wickets in 50 T20Is. He picked 38 wickets in 37 IPL matches between 2014 and 2021.
Pat Cummins | Photo courtesy: Facebook/Pat Cummins
While Starc hasn't played IPL since 2015, Cummins opted out of IPL 2023 to prepare for The Ashes and ODI World Cup.
Australia's Travis Head was also sold to Hyderabad at 6.80 crore.
Meanwhile, New Zealand star batter Daryl Mitchell was sold to Chennai Super Kings for Rs. 14 crore.
Chennai also went out for ODI World Cup 2023 star Rachin Ravindra, a Kiwi player, for Rs. 1.8 crore.
Punjab Kings bought India's Harshal Patel for Rs. 11.75 crore.
Australia's star batter Steven Smith, India's Karun Nair and Manish Pandey were among the unsold players.
All teams of IPL were aiming to strengthen their squads further utilising the available money in their purse months ahead of IPL 2024, which will begin in the next summer in India.
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